Price fixing (was Re: How much would you charge for this? £5k? £15k? £50k?)

I'm no master of the law, I have a lawyer for that, but a quick read aboutprice fixing seems to suggest that this is not that at all. Rather, pricefixing is an agreement made so that competition in a market is lost byvendors agreeing upon a rate to sell a product or service for current andfuture clients, making it impossible for them (the clients) to seek betterdeals elsewhere (or for the market to be fairly regulated by supply, demand,and so forth). This is not a case of that, because ALJ is not trying to fixthe market at a particular price (i.e., he is not saying "Calling all DjangoDevelopers; cap your rates at <$x>/hour so we are all equal.")

To the Frequently Asked Question entry that you point to, it mentions that"several brokers in DC were successfully prosecuted for simply discussing anincrease of fees at a dinner meeting." That appears to be specific tomultiple competitors seeking to agree upon a rate so that they are all equalin their pricing (and therefore do not compete based upon that), rather thana case in which an up-and-coming broker is simply trying to learn how pricesare determined.

Regardless, it does not seem like ALJ is trying to formulate a charge forthis current project, which is already underway (as indicated by there beingsuch a plethora of changes only halfway through). Instead, it seems to me asif ALJ is merely trying to educate himself on how experienced developersdetermine pricing, so that he may understand what sort of expenses to takeinto account to accurately judge the worth of a project.

Just my two cents. If this is on the border of being illegal (or otherwiseoff-topic for this group), then the topic should by all means be dropped,but I do not think that any activity as indicated by my reading about pricefixing is taking place.

To ALJ, it is difficult to determine a price for these specific requirements(especially when changes are being made after). I would recommend that youconsider how this project will add to your reputation and education,especially since you are inexperienced with this framework (and perhaps thelanguage). Newer developers will often have to 'sacrifice' a higher pay sothat they may build their portfolio and learn more about what common jobsrequire they know. As they do this and continue to prove themselves worthy,they can raise their rates--not to something that necessarily matches whateveryone else is charging, but to what they feel is representative of theirtime spent, and knowledge used, on the project.

> I'm just starting out with Django so using an hourly rate isn't really> applicable because I'm going to be much slower that a 'real'> developer. So far I've spent about 6 months part time.>> What kind of ballpark amounts would people suggest this is worth?

I don't know about the law elsewhere, but in the United States, having adiscussion with other vendors on what to charge clients opens you up toprosecution for price fixing. It almost certainly should be a banned topichere.

For a fairly good description of the issue, look at the HTML Writer's Guildguidelines:http://www.hwg.org/resources/faqs/priceFAQ.htmlNick